Eldarion's Rise
by alondo
Summary: Eldarion son of Aragorn has taken his father's throne. After his fathers death he relizes that Angmar must come under the rule of Gondor, and so the conquest beggins.
1. The Vision

Aragorn, high king and lord of Gondor is growing old. A century and twenty years had passed since the destruction of the ring and Sauron. Aragorn awoke one night from a dream, and to Arwen he said," my wife it is time this day, I have had a long and happy life, but today I must die."

With that King Aragorn returned to sleep for the rest of night. He awoke early in the morning, and took his sceptre and crow and went to the throne room. His son followed him there, in the hall he spoke to his son and said,"Eldarion, you must now take my place as king, may you rule for long years to come. Carry on the house of Telcontar until the unmaking of the world." He spoke to his son for a while longer giving him final words of advice before his death. Aragorn walked to his throne where he then sat heavily and slouched, Arwen his wife beside him. No more that an hour later the great King of Gondor and the Kingdoms of men died. When Eldarion's father died he was aroused from his chair which he had sat near the throne to be with his father until the end. He took long, swift strides as his father had in years past, out the doors of the throne room, and into the court yard which sat at the heart of the capital city of Annuminas. He called out, his voice rang throughout the city,"Our great king is dead, may you all mourn him, I now summon the council to the palace."

The council of Gondor rose from the daily tasks and moved swifty to the palace, in the near center of the city. Whispers filled the throne room as the council and their servants pondered the truth of the king's death. "Is it true?", said one servant, another said,"He was murdered!", and yet another called," why would the king leave us!".

"Silence!", yelled Eldarion. His voice held the same power of his father, and the same calm of his grandfather. "Rumors are for the foolish, my father died this morning not an hour past and now you stand here spreading filth and half-truths," Eldarion glared around the room,"if you cannot control your tongs, then keep your mouths shut!" A deafening silence fell over the room.

"Eldarion, you are now king, why would you need us summoned here?" asked Faramorn son of Faramir.

"Be patient my friend, you will know in a while." said the new king. So there the council waited, long hours past and whispers and quiet conversations filled the room. Eldarion noticed a few tears shed when the topic of the king was raised. Finally with not much longer than an hour of daylight left Eldarion rose from the throne, and so the men filling the chamber arose also. The personal guard of the king, adorned with golden armor, wings of eagles sprouting from their helms, followed him closely , along with around fifty others that had filled the chamber. They filed out of the chamber following there new king into the courtyard. The courtyard held a white tree, once only a seed, sprung from the tree of Gondor, around the tree was a bed of flowers, pinks and yellows. A waist high stone fence separated the courtyard from the street, where the hustle and bustle of the city could easily be observed by those in the courtyard.

"My friends, this evening we will be watching the stars, closely," Eldarion looked toward the sky, then turned his head slowly back to all those in the courtyard and spoke again,"I suggest you make yourselves confortable, we will be here for a good portion of the night." Many glances were made around the crowd, most of the council was aged, none below the age of 47, many were in there sixties.

"My king, this is preposterous, we cannot sit in the grass in our fine clothes," he took a breath and looked around, hoping for support in his argument,"we have far more pressing issues than stargazing your majesty." At that time an audible laugh came from Eldarion.

"Delhir, old friend, do you not trust me? I have seen my kingdom's destiny in the stars, you will see it too if you will stay. You may go of course, I do not hold you hear, but remember I gave you those fine linens that you wish not soil." Delhir brought his gaze away from the king, to the ground in shame.

"I am sorry my king, I will do as you wish, I apologize for doubting you." With that Delhir took a seat in the grass, as did the rest of the crowd, except for the king's guards. They stood in quiet vigil by the throne room door and by the entrances of the courtyard.

Two hours past, the light on the horizon slowly faded, as day relinquished in grasp on the sky. Stars became bright jewls in the sky, and the moon stood bright just above the roofs of the stone buildings in the city. Relative silence had taken the crowd for those two hours, except for the occasional cough or one person telling another of the beauty of the night sky in a quiet voice. Finally the king stood, and the crowd brought it's attention to him. He glanced for a long minute into the dark sky, turning his gaze as if to reassure himself that he indeed had seen what he wished the crowd to see. The king broke the silence, his calm voice traveling easily over the crowd,"My people look," the king rose his arms, his sleeves fell back to his elbows revealing his powerfull forearms. His index finger extended the ring of Borahir was on it, the green stone shimmering in the star light,"do you see the belt of seven stars, faint it is now but it will brighten soon. They have aligned three times in my life, once on my birth, then again on my fiftieth birthday, and tonight as I suspected. I see now where my destiny lies... Angmar."


	2. Angmar

The crowd gasped nearly in unison. Angmar was a cold and evil place, once ruled by the witch king, now plunged into chaos since there was no ruler.

"My king, that is madness. You know what Angmar is like, frozen wasteland with people that are mad." said Galdin, another council member.

"Yes Galdin, I am mad. But cannot each here in this room say we are mad?" said Eldarion. Many heads nodded and giggles arose from the crowd,"but I say it is madness to ignore what god has placed in front of your face. Cannot you see plainly with your eyes the stars that point north to Angmar, and not two months past I had a dream, that I stood with an army to my back on a cold plain, covered in deep snow. These are signs, and you are the mad one to ignore it."

"We will follow you king!"cried out a voice from the crowd. A smile came to the edges of the kings mouth. The king again turned his gaze to the heavens, and the instant his eyes turned upward, a shooting star darted its fiery trail across the sky. _Another sign_, the king thought to himself.

The king allowed the crowd to disband shortly afterward, he was tired himself and he felt the patients of the tired crowd running out. As most left he noticed a few lingered, but they were not council members. He knew the whole council by name, most he had known for years, 7 sat on the council. Many servants of the council members were also known by there first name with Aragorn, very unusual in many peoples eyes, and Eldarion followed in his fathers ideas. A short while later as Elderion gazed the heavens again the men that had waited approached him. He noticed that they wore the appearal of rangers.

"King, we have news that you may want to hear. Goblins have come pouring out of mount Gram in the last week. At first we thought it was several raiding parties, then the host became far to large. Many of us opted to believe that a goblin assult would come to Fornost for that is the direction they were moving. But then we saw something," The man paused, and he swiftly fell to one knee. The other men standing with him looked puzzled then also fell to a knee." My king I am so very sorry. I am not used to authority, I mostly live in the wild, I did not observe proper greeting to my new king. Elderion, I am used to you being a prince and lord not king, and I hope you will forgive me.

"Stand you fools, I am not used to this postion either. Now then, you seem quite worried, I am more concerned with your story now that your ungentlemanly conduct." said the king and laughed.

"Yes my-lord. As I was saying, the goblins were moving toward Fornost but suddenly one day at noon they made camp. There tents were mostly composed of bushes and badly skinned animal hides. I was watching the camp to see if there was any unusual movements, but a messenger came to me and said that something was moving from under the mountain. Something much more dangerous than goblins. Worms, at least two," he hesitated,"the goblins then moved back and we followed. As they reach the mountain though, a winged dragon flew in, along with two worm dragons. They attacked but we left before the battle finished." Eldarion stood silent for a long minute. His eyes were fixed in place, his mind was perplexed.

"There can be no mistake about them being dragons?" asked the king. The ranger nodded his head no, which made Eldarion's stomach sink even farther. Yet in his moment of panic Eldarion realized something, this would give him even more reason to move his armies north, to move against Angmar. " Well captain, I will have you do something. Just on my orders alone. Take your rangers, all under your command, and move them to Fornost. You must be quick, my armies will soon follow you but make sure the city is safe for now."

"Yes my-lord, I have a small group of rangers with me now, the rest are camped northeast of Weather Hills. They can be moved there shortly sir." said the ranger, he bowed slightly and moved away, out of one of the gates at the edge of the court yard. The king looked again to the sky, gazing at its beauty.

"Father, I hope I can please you. You were a mighty man, please guide me on my way."Eldarion's voice was soft, but the the calm in it remained.

As Eldarion rose the next morning he was almost immediatly swarmed with servants, many were royal clothiers, others royal planners for the crowning. He would need weeks or months to plan his crowning and it would start this morning. He had planned for a great wizard or magician to crown him, but there was none. No great priests existed, and his father was dead. There was one though, one that could pronounce him king, with the authority to do so. Fingar.


	3. Finding Fingar

Fingar was a young boy when Gandalf first met him, he couldn't have been much older than eight. He was a smart mouth even then but Gandalf soon corrected it when he took the young orphan under his care. Wandering around with a wizard isn't exactly what people think a good childhood would consist of but it was far better than wandering the streets. Few mortals have ever learned the secrets of the Valar, not even elves. Gandalf at first was reluctant but the child showed adept to the knowledge, especially for a man. As he grew he showed more talent in what people call magic, and eventually was offered a stable home in Gondor as an adviser to king Turin. Of coarse Gandalf told him to except, and he did, but also with that came the end of his magical learning.

Years past and king Turin died. Fingar was then out of a job and back in the same position he had been in when he was a child, so he made a decision. He would set out and make a name for himself as his mentor Gandalf had. And so he did, for fourty years he built his name, and he was never without a home. As he grew older though, he realized that he wasn't as other men, he was now 60 and still young. He was like Gandalf, but younger in appearance. Still more years past and one day he found himself in Harad near the haven of Umbar. Not long after the War of the Ring started, and for a year he couldn't venture far, nor could he move outside much, in fear of being drafted into an army, or in the act of resisting might be killed. Around a year later when the war had ended he ventured north, as quick as he could, and again for the first time in more than a century he found him self in Gondor. King Elessar was ruling, and had just made the plans to rebuild the capital of Annuminas. Fingar opted to stay in Gondor though, the city that he had loved, and spent so much time in as new wizard.

As the century passed Fingar again began to wander the world, he visited the newly planted land of Nurn. Green feilds filled this land now instead of soot, fire and stone. He found this land nice, almost homely, everybuilding new, everyone working hard to make a lives in this land. It was all soon to end though, when a messenger, no more that 17 came into a tavern at which he was staying.

"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask that you come wit me please, its of dah up most importance." said the young man, he was sweating, and panting.

"Well first I'm going to ask you who are you, and what is of the utmost importance?" Fingar paused," and why are you panting?"

The messenger looked at him with a strange face, almost a frown but more puzzled.

"Well sir, the high king Eldarion requests that you meet him in the new capital of Annuminas immediately."

"Hmmm... the king. Well I guess i will just have to see what he needs then." said Fingar as he smiled.

Soon they were on their way. Rushing at full speed for the capital it would still take weeks to get there, seeing as he was in the new city of Finite Minas, where Barad-Dur once stood and the new tower of the city was built on the site of its foundation, getting to Annuminas would take no less than than three and a half mounths. Fingar plotted their planned route, and found that the shortest way would not be to go through the gap of Rohan, but instead to go up through the pass that feeds the Gladden River North of Lorien Forest. When he and the messenger set off Fingar relized that this would be a long journey but he would not be prepared for what would come ahead, not ever could he have imagined this.


End file.
